White House Counsel Warns Rep. Garcia Probes Could Cross Into Crime
White House counsel Will Scharf has warned Rep. Robert Garcia, the incoming House Oversight chair, that aggressive Democratic investigations of the Trump administration could cross into criminality. Garcia called the letter a baseless threat and said Democrats will not be deterred.
White House counsel Will Scharf has warned Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, the incoming chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, that Democrats' planned investigations of the Trump administration could cross into criminal behavior. The warning came in a letter sent Monday, after Democrats won back the House in the midterm elections.
The letter sets up an early clash over how far a Democratic-led House can go in scrutinizing the White House.
Scharf cited recent statements from Democrats previewing aggressive investigations. After the midterms, Garcia wrote in a social media post that "Oversight Democrats are ready to take on the crooks, the con men, and the Trump crime family. Lawyer up."
It is unclear how any of those statements could implicate federal criminal law. Lawmakers have sweeping protection under the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution, and the Supreme Court has set a very high bar for what counts as a true threat under federal law.
What the letter says
Scharf argued that Congress's power to compel evidence exists only for oversight. "Abusive threats and public statements about the indiscriminate issuance of subpoenas, along with threats directed at prospective targets within the Administration make it abundantly clear that any forthcoming investigative processes will be deployed to harass and aggrandize, rather than to advance any legitimate legislative end," the letter reads.
He went further. Threats against executive branch officials meant to deter them from public service, or process designed merely to instill fear, "may cross the line into blatant criminality," Scharf wrote. Issuing unlawful subpoenas to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights "may warrant further investigation," he added.
Scharf pointed to two Supreme Court precedents. In Watkins v. United States, decided in 1954, the court held that committees can compel testimony only if it is clearly tied to a legislative purpose. In Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP, decided in 2020, it set standards for congressional subpoenas seeking private records, including the president's.
Garcia's response
Garcia rejected the warning in a statement. "Congress has wide latitude to conduct investigations and oversight, an authority inherent in the power to legislate," he wrote.
"We are a co-equal branch of government and will not be deterred by baseless threats from a weaponized DOJ or from the President's lawyers," he added. DOJ refers to the Department of Justice.
Garcia's spokesperson said the Oversight Committee had not formally received the letter as of Wednesday morning.
Democrats are likely to point to earlier remarks from allies of President Donald Trump. After the 2024 election, Steve Bannon, who was White House chief strategist in Trump's first term, told MSNBC staff on his show War Room: "You better be worried. You better lawyer up."
Kash Patel, before he became FBI director, publicly discussed investigating members of the "deep state," journalists and officials involved in earlier Trump investigations.
